Page 65 of Privilege

Yet, he still tied her in knots.

Like right now.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said, smiling slyly. “You cleaned the kitchen, too. What are you doing in here picking up shit?”

Lucia wiped her hands across her pants to remove the dampness from the towel she’d been using to clean up the water mess. “I mean, do you want to do all this before you go to bed? I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

“But you don’t have—”

“I know. I wanted to.”

She expected him to come back with something else to say his life and business wasn’t her responsibility to worry about. That just seemed to be Renzo’s way, didn’t it? If he felt like she was getting to close, he was quick to push her away. Yeah, she’d gotten him figured out, now.

So, maybe it surprised her a bit—although, it wasn’t a bad surprise—when he nodded, and turned in the doorway with a wave of his hand. “Come on, then.”

Lucia trailed behind him through the hallway until the two of them were standing in the living room. He yanked an opened can of soda up from the coffee table in front of a couch that did not look like the one that had been here the last time. The clean, brown microfiber was vastly different from the frayed, worn out light blue one that had sat there before.

“New couch?”

Renzo took a long swig from the can, and set it back down to the table. “Couldn’t clean the other one of Carmen’s mess, so I just said fuck it, and grabbed this one.”

She noted the pillow and blanket folded up on the end. “And you’re sleeping on it, too, apparently.”

“I usually do when she’s not around using it.”

Lucia frowned, and couldn’t help but wonder … where in the hell did he sleep when his mother was around? This apartment was only a one bedroom. She didn’t know how big Diego’s room was, but was that where Renzo slept usually?

Renzo’s quiet chuckles brought Lucia out of her thoughts. She found him smirking at her in that way. It was as sexy as it was fucking annoying. She had come to find that look of his meant he knew something she didn’t, and he found it funny.

“What?”

“Your wheels are spinning,” he murmured, reaching out to press the pad of his thumb against her forehead. Right on the spot above her eyes. His thumb stroked her skin like he was trying to smooth out the lines she’d made while thinking. Lucia couldn’t help but smile. “When you’re thinking too hard about something, you get a little knot right here, you know.”

“Do I?”

“Every single time, baby.”

Huh.

“I was just wondering where you slept when your mom is here.”

That question made Renzo stiffen, and his gaze drifted away from her. She could tell right then that whatever the answer was, he clearly didn’t want to give it to her. Renzo’s best defense was to simply ignore a question when he didn’t want to answer one. She expected him to deflect her question to something else, but once again, he surprised her.

“Wherever the hell I can,” he said quietly, “but Diego’s room is too small for a second bed, and I’m not getting in his little twin, either.”

“So …”

“The floor, a chair … the tub. I just need to close my eyes once in a while, Lucia. I don’t really care where in the fuck I do it.”

The tub.

Renzo gestured at the couch, adding, “I haven’t seen Carmen since they took her in the ambulance. I called the hospital about seventy-two hours after she was taken in to see when they were going to release her. I guess she signed herself out after the forty-eight-hour mark. They couldn’t stop her, then. She’s not been back.”

That heaviness was back in Lucia’s heart again.

So was the bitterness and anger.

“She hasn’t called?”